Tag: 4per1000 initiative

The Initiative Forum’s second official meeting and the 4per1000 Consortium’s third meeting took place in Bad Godesberg (Bonn). The Initiative’s relevance at state and government level was shown by the fact several Ministers and members of the authority were present during the first part. The success is also shown with the Netherlands recently becoming new members of the initiative.

Report by the Secretariat and that by the Technical and Scientific Committee illustrated this year’s activities. In sum: the 4×1000 Initiative has been actively consolidating its organisational structure. We can affirm that the work done until now by both groups has achieved the organisational aims that had been set.

Among the main leaders’ speeches, the matter of potentially causing overlapping with existing actions of organisations like FAO, European Commission and others, was mentioned. Under the current scheme of the Initiative, it is clear that exists some form of “clash” risk with the organisations that have been dealing with these matters for years. However, room for collaboration is both offered to and asked of everyone. Continua a leggere “4 per 1000 initiative: 16 November 2017, meeting in Bonn”→

The meeting in Bonn is the third one taking place after Paris (2015) and Marrakech (2016). This year it will take place in the town hall of Bad Godesberg, in the outskirts of Bonn. In the morning there will be presentations of the work achieved up to this point, and the official report of the Scientific and Technical Committee will be presented. The latter is also expected to hold meetings on 14 and 15 November.

On 16 November the afternoon meeting is only for members of the 4per1000 Consortium.

On 29th and 30th June of this year the second meeting for Members of the 4 per 1000 Consortium took place in Montpellier, and it aimed at reviewing all progresses made by the initiative, and recommendations from the Technical and Scientific Committee

In this occasion, an interesting Poster session presented projects related to the initiative, more specifically on food security, and on how to adapt to climate change.

The secretariat will present these posters at the SIP Forum’s meeting, which will take place in Bonn on 16 November.

The IRTA poster illustrates ways of retrieving data on emissions in agricultural systems in Mediterranean countries. This data makes it easier to evaluate the equilibrium of the organic matter in the soil, and suggest specific cultural practices for each case.

An analysis on how a State can put a 4per1000 initiative into practice has been missing until now. The French Ministry for Agriculture filled this gap and, on 19 July, published a booklet (only in FR) entitled “Implementation of policies related to 4per1000 at national level”.

The starting points are clear: a) climate change is the top challenge for the agricultural sector, it has to be acknowledged by the large number of draughts and increasing environmental disasters over the past few years; b) promoting more carbon accumulation in soil is a strong contribution for the safeguard of agriculture; c) increasing organic matter in soil allows further fertility, which could confront the food security challenge as well as increasing resistance to erosion, and water accumulation.

With Emmanuel Macron’s election, recent political events in France have led to many changes in ministries. The new minister for agriculture as of 21 June 2017 is Stéphane Travert, replacement for Jacques Mézard whom had been nominated just a few weeks before to replace Stéphane Le Foll. The latter had acquired international visibility with the 4per1000 initiative itself. The International Union of Soil Science (IUSS) had even shown recognition of his merits by awarding a medal. Thanks to his personal commitment, we must add that the notion of carbon accumulation in soil as an element guaranteeing food security and an answer to climate-related challenges has once again been set on the international agenda.

It is still too early to tell what direction the new French minister will take. In theory, the new political climate should not affect the 4 per 1000 Initiative too much, as it is already structured and consolidated. Perhaps at the next meeting in Bonn we will be able to understand if the current Minister will keep on with the initiative in an equally passionate manner. His physical presence would confirm that the French government is still marching along the same indicated path.

Constructive dialogue with hundreds of partners is always highly difficult to achieve.

In order to get to know its partners and adapt the initiative to participants’ expectations, the Executive Secretary decided to carry out a survey based on the Scientific and Technical Committee. This questionnaire is to be filled out online, and will be available until 15 June, and the survey until the end of August.

The Scientific and Technical Committee that was appointed at the Marrakech meeting will gather to prepare the evaluation criteria for the projects, and details on the international programme on research and scientific co-operation.

Also this year, the website will be launched: it will include a collaborative platform and a numerical centre, as required by the roadmap adopted by the Consortium. The latter envisages two meetings over the year.

Finally the next Initiative Forum meeting will take place in Bonn during COP 23 (from 6 to 17 November 2017).

As SIP Forum – seeing the lack of reaction from the Ministers of Agriculture and Environment – we would like to establish contact mechanisms on the 4per1000 Initiative with various associations, such as that of the farmers, of agricultural experts, and of agronomists. This mandate is given to the Soil Europe Group of the SIP Forum.